1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus for rapidly weighing a large number of articles, and more particularly, to apparatus for accurately weighing such articles irrespective of their orientation as the articles are weighed.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A number of systems have been developed for sorting individual articles, such as fruits or vegetables according to weight. Such systems include a plurality of spaced article receiving cups arranged in single file on a conveyor so that articles pass over a scale fixed in the conveyor channel at a point between a loading zone and a discharge zone. The cups are usually pivotally carried by their proximal ends and weighed by weighing the loose end of each cup, it being assumed that the cavity of each cup will orient a contained article with the center of gravity of the article at the center of the cavity. However, if an article has an irregular shape the article may be weighed lighter or heavier than the actual weight, depending upon whether the center of gravity of the article is toward the front or toward the rear of the center of the cavity of the cup. If the center of gravity of the article is in front of the center of the cup cavity the article will weigh too light because a larger portion of the weight is supported by the pivot, and if the center of gravity is behind the center of the cup cavity the article will register a weight larger than the actual value.
One system for weighing moving articles attempts to alleviate the disadvantages of the pivoted cups by mounting legs at the four corners of a rectangular article receiving cup and allowing the four legs to support the cup by sliding along the length of a pair of bars mounted on a load cell. A disadvantage of the use of the two bars to support the four cup legs is that the two front legs slide along the bars for a considerable distance before the rear legs make contact with the bars. Then the four legs slide along the bars only a short distance before the front legs move off the pair of bars. This provides only a relatively short time for the actual weighing of the article and could cause inaccuracies in weighing as the legs could bounce on the bars before settling down.